Div. 2 South Baseball Semifinal: Errors undo Old Rochester's season

NORTON — Like a ball of string let go at the top of a staircase, the Old Rochester baseball team had to watch its season unravel over the course of seven difficult innings on Wednesday.

Brendan Kurie

NORTON — Like a ball of string let go at the top of a staircase, the Old Rochester baseball team had to watch its season unravel over the course of seven difficult innings on Wednesday.

On an overcast, muggy afternoon in front of a strong crowd, the second-seeded Bulldogs booted the ball around the field to the tune of eight errors; an unforgiveable number. When it was all over, third-seeded Bellingham had a 13-3 Div. 3 South Sectional semifinal win at James V. Sidell Stadium at Wheaton College, and one of the more successful seasons in ORR history — highlighted by a South Coast Conference co-championship — came to a close.

"It's disappointing," said senior starter Tyler Zell, who pitched well through the first three innings before running into error-induced trouble in the fourth. "As a team I don't know if we came out fired up enough today."

Not only were the errors numerous, but they came at inopportune times. Zell quickly got the first two outs in both the first and second innings before three errors led to three unearned runs between the two frames. In the fourth, a badly misjudged line drive to center and the Bulldogs' fifth error of the game combined for another unearned run.

"We didn't pick a good time to have eight errors in the field," coach Steve Carvalho said. "Against a team like this, they're going to take advantage of it."

By the time ORR came to bat in the fifth, it was down 7-0 and an SCC-leading offense built upon small ball was forced to play for big innings. When the Bulldogs finally got on the board in the sixth, they had fallen behind 13-0 and Blackhawks starter David Sampson had departed.

"We ran into a horse on the mound, a big strong kid and a good-hitting team," Carvalho said. "When you start playing like that and get behind the eight ball, it's very hard to come back."

Sampson, a hard-throwing righty who liked to dial it up but maintained his control, threw 5-2/3 innings, giving up six hits, two runs (one earned), two walks and struck out nine on 97 pitches. He was particularly dominant in the first five innings, holding ORR to just three hits and no runs.

"He was throwing well and painting his corners when he could," Zell said. "Nothing we shouldn't have hit, I just don't think we brought it today as much as we usually do."

Zell, meanwhile, had given up four hits without an earned run with one walk and four strikeouts through three innings.

"I thought Tyler did a fantastic job on the mound keeping us in the game," Carvalho said. "I have to give Tyler his due. He didn't have the type of help he needed behind him."

WHAT IT MEANS: The Bulldogs finish their season 16-7, while Bellingham advances to play No. 12 Cardinal Spellman in the Div. 3 South finals. Five seniors — Zell, Andrew Ryan, Chris Carando, Kiernan Besse, Ryan Plunkett — played their final game for ORR.

CARVALHO: "I have to give those five seniors a lot of credit for getting us to this point and showing the other guys what it takes to win. ... The best solace I could give them right now is they showed what it takes to win the SCC and get to this point. Obviously, pitching helps a lot. It helps to have those types of arms and this team was built around that."

PIVOTAL SEQUENCE: With two outs and a runner on second in the bottom of the fourth, the Blackhawks' Brad Rebello ripped an RBI triple, which was followed by a double, a single and an error, leading to a four-run inning and a 7-0 lead. "Once they put up that four-spot, we were in trouble at that point," Carvalho said.

ZELL: "It's not like we didn't take anything from this season. We won the league, so that's a good thing. You can't call it a disappointment if you don't win a state championship, but we all would have wanted to be there."

ORR STATS: Zell's final line was four-plus innings, 10 hits, eight runs (four earned), one walk and five strikeouts. ... Plunkett and Austin Salkind each had two hits, while Carando, Zell and Bryant Salkind had one base knock apiece.

NOTES: ORR's runs came when Bryant Salkind singled home Carando in the sixth, Mike Deverix was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the sixth and Besse's groundout scored Austin Salkind in the seventh. ... Ryan made a key diving snag at third base to end the second with runners on second and third. ... Until the sixth inning, Plunkett was the only Bulldog to hit the ball hard when he laced a single up the middle in the second.

OLD ROCHESTER 000 002 1—3

BELLINGHAM 120 460 x—13

WP: David Sampson; LP: Tyler Zell (3-4)

Records: Old Rochester (16-7); Bellingham (20-3)

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